1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for controlling robotic motion.
2. State of the Art
In industrial settings, robots generally each have a movable hand, or "end effector", connected to a base via a plurality of movable joints. Normally, a servo motor is located at or near each joint in such robots to allow the end effector to manipulate parts and tools in a controlled manner. For such robots to perform complex and varied tasks in manufacturing operations, it is necessary for the robots each to have several degrees of freedom. It is also highly desirable that multi-jointed robots have coordinated motion even though each joint motor is controlled individually.
In conventional robot architectures, microprocessors and other circuits that control robot joint motors are normally all placed in a single card cage and, typically, six to fourteen control wires are required for interconnection to each robotic joint. Thus, to control a robot with six or more joints, as many as forty or more electrical conductors must be snaked through the limbs and joints of the robot. Such conventional architecture is not only costly in terms of manufacturing, but can decrease robotic reliability while increasing maintenance costs. Accordingly, there is a need to alleviate the complexity of known interconnection architectures for multi-jointed robots.